DataPacRat

Re: WWYCD: Harem Comedy from Hell

Mike the Demoness /is/ a demoness, thought not necessarily a 'Lady'. She's specifically avoided trying to acquire any worshipers, but if one showed up on her doorstep anyway, she'd do her best to get him to follow her Commandments of enlightened long-term self-interest, rather than any attempts at sacrificing virgins in her name or other such unsocial behaviour that tends to /not/ be in the participants' long-term interests.

The dimensional lord would be received politely, and informed that consorthood isn't in her plans at the moment, but to feel free to look her up in a decade or century or two. In the meantime, they could have /quite/ a time enjoying each others' company less formally, and they could very well paint the whole city red...

The wizard would get a fairly similar reaction. Plus, according to the law of the land Mike currently is in, polygamy/polyandrony is only illegal if marriage is involved. Mike will be entirely honest about what she wants, and who she wants it with, and whichever suitors can't deal with that are free to stop suiting.

Re: Wwycd Oops!

Mike the Demoness: "Look, I'm probably the /last/ person you should be talking to about this sort of thing. If you want to be tortured for a while as punishment for what you did or didn't do, I can probably help out with that, but really, it gets old pretty fast. If you want to try joining the fallen heroes, well, you don't need /me/ for that."

"You really want my advice? Okay. If you haven't already done it, figure out what your goals are, what sort of life you'll be happy leading, and do what you need to do to work towards it. You decided once before that you wanted to help people so much you were willing to risk your life to do it. Is that what you still plan on doing? If so, do what it takes to get back to it - counseling, a new costume, a seance to talk to those who also took the risk, whatever. If it's /not/ what you want to do, then go do whatever it is that /does/ bring you closer to your personal goals."

Re: WWYCD: Halloween From Hell 2007

Mike the Demoness /is/ one of those demons. She'd probably simply go out as herself and try to find some other real-supernatural beings to schmooze with.

Re: WWYCD: Once bitten . . .

Mike the Demoness: "I'm already practically immortal, can fly on leathern wings, and may or may not technically be considered 'alive'. You think having to drink mortal blood, avoid sunlight and holy symbols and garlic is a step /up/ the supernatural rankings?"

Re: WWYCD: The Nightmare on Hero Street

Mike the Demoness had DC's Vertigo mentioned as part of the inspiration in her original write-up. That setting has certain connections between the dream-realm and Hell, which could turn the whole thing from a sleeping smack-fest to high-level supernatural political shenanigans.

There's also the minor detail that Mike only sleeps when she /wants/ to (or is KOed), giving her plenty of prep time in the waking world before she meets the self-proclaimed Nightmare fellow again.

Re: WWYCD: One Wish

Mike the Demoness: "I wish that nobody but me knows what my True Name is." She has 30 points of Physical Limitations where people who know her True Name can make her do things.

Re: WWYCD: Registration Payback

Mike the Demoness: "How hard would it be in this country to pass a law requiring elected politicians' activities to be completely public while they're in office?"

Re: WWYCD "super" registration

Mike the Demoness: "I've got a goat's legs, hooves, tail, udder - don't ask - and horns, bat's wings, and red skin, and I tend to burst into flame when annoyed. Go ahead and write all that down, if you want to. I could hardly stop you if I tried. However, I will point out that the law, as written, violates the rights of the country's powered citizens, and thus goes against the very purpose of having a government in the first place. How does that saying go? 'There are four boxes - soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.' Armed revolts have started with scanter justification."

She will also simply fail to mention that she is quite capable of reshaping her demonic flesh into various mortal-appearing shapes (the one of which she spends the most time in being her Secret ID), and so she can evade just about any non-mystical search for her, if she tries hard enough (and is able to keep any strong emotions from activating her Accidental Change). If the local bureaucrats get too annoying, she'll probably take this as an opportunity to take a tour of the other continents' various supernatural sites and peoples.

Re: WWYCD: Mindset

Mike the Demoness is a secular humanist, with rationalist, neo-objectivist, and libertarian leanings. (And some of her Hunteds-of-the-week think the fact that a demon espouses atheism is proof that it's really devil-worshipping in disguise... and break out the holy-water pistols... but I digress...)

"My goal is to preserve and promote human, and other sentient, life, starting with my own but including everyone else's as a close second. To do that, I want to live in a country where the rule of law is enforced, as long as those laws are designed to protect the individual rights and fundamental freedoms. Where those laws fail in that task, I'll violate them if I feel I need to in order to preserve lives, and then deal with whatever the local justice system has to say about that."

"If a government is unable to protect its citizens, then it falls on us, the citizens, to protect ourselves, in the name of self-defense. If somebody is pointing a gun at you and threatens to shoot you, then it's within your rights to use lethal force to save your own life at the expense of his. By initiating force against you, he has demonstrated that he does not wish to live by the rules of civilized society, and thus does not deserve the protections such a society offers to those who /do/ follow its rules. If you prefer to use other methods to save lives, such as altering an attacker's mind so that they no longer pose a threat - or, even better, so that they start living by the law of the land - that's on the same moral ground."

"Just don't let me catch you violating any minds without permission, outside of the necessity of self-defense or the common defense of others, or else you might feel a touch of the flames of your afterlife a bit early, yourself..."

Re: More comfortable in fire than out

"Baptized in the Fires of Hell"

 

Desolidification

0 endurance

Persistent

Inherent

Only vs "The Fires of Hell"

Cannot Pass through Solid Matter/Not actually desolid (This could be partially advantageous because, in the rare instance Hellfire was used to attack someone else, the character could possibly interpose their body to block the attack)

 

To be "Book legal" the character would also have to buy Affects Real World on their strength and effects mean to harm others.

 

I'd find it simpler to say define Hellfire as not effecting Hellborn as a standard features of the "Energy Type" (similar to the suggestions in the Ultimate Energy Projector). If the The Fires of Hell are truly a 666d6 KA then the character isn't taking the other PCs on any tours of their home town or anything and Hellfire (in most of my campaigns) wouldn't be a common attack type and most of the types that would use it would know it doesn't effect Hellborn so wouldn't bother.

Hm... In that case, it would probably be simplest to ignore the actual game-stats involved in the home town's fires burning unless/until it comes into play (after all, according to Dante, at least some parts of Hell have already started to freeze over, so it's not /all/ smoke and brimstone), and simply deal with how the character interacts with the ordinary game-world's flames.

(Hm... now I'm wondering if it would be worth trying to build "Extra-Dimensional Movement, requires someone in the target dimension to perform a summoning ritual for future reference...)

Re: Pet Powers

I seem to have an over-fondness for Life Support. Particularly 'no aging' if I can think of any close-to-reasonable rationale, but I've used the whole 50-point schmear.

Re: WWYCD/W:The gift

Mike the Demoness: "Assuming you really are really real, could I... help out? Maybe be a substitute reindeer? I can already fly," flaps her bat-wings, "and call up some flames that would light up the fog a lot better than a glowing nose could, and maybe later you could introduce me to the Easter Bunny, I've always wanted to meet him or her or them..."

Re: More comfortable in fire than out

I'll rep you once I reload (all outta ammo). So then... why not just buy Armor (rED' date=' only vs. fiery doom, -1 1/2)? Or am I missing something else?[/quote']

 

Because the Fires Of Hell, which is what this ability is supposed to be able to withstand, are somewhere around, oh, let's say 66d6 Killing, which needs a /lot/ of Armor. (I'm just guessing on that number - it may, in fact, be 666d6; or merely whatever the environmental conditions at the centre of the Earth are.) Mere Earthly flames are a trifle in comparison, about as dangerous as the local air.

Re: More comfortable in fire than out

Does people with True Faith include religious fanatics and/or devil worshippers? If so I would make it -1/4. DEMON will kick his ass.

It's kind of a DC's "Vertigo" style of thing. Dealing with where souls go in a game is always something of a touchy subject, of course, but one way to describe this bit would be "the afterlife coming to call early". If the mortal is, at present, truly destined for a pleasant afterlife, do not pass purgatory, then there's nothing in them for these hell-flames to actually catch hold of and burn. (The flames may have certain side-effects, such as incinerating their clothes or setting a forest ablaze, but the mortal wouldn't actually be damaged by the hell-flames themselves.)

If these devil-worshipers' worshiped devil has promised (and is able to fulfill that promise) of sending them to an afterlife of debauchery instead of torment, and the worshipers are fulfilling their end of the compact, then I expect they'd be as immune as any saint.

Re: More comfortable in fire than out

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to propose the Desolid version, and ask for GM's permission to skip having to buy 'affects solid' for everything else.

(Now, all I have to do is figure out if "Does not affect true innocents or people possessing True Faith in their religion" is worth more than a -0 Limit on his Fire EC... or if there's a decent Limitation to describe 'His fire-based Damage shield occasionally accidentally activates when his emotions run high'...)

Fiddling around with my current prospective PC (flying energy projector / gadgeteer / power armor), I've just realized that with her heroic-motivation psych-lim of "Protective of Innocents", it's very likely that she'll have been spending most of her on-duty time, not lounging around in the Situation Room waiting for the cops to report the latest supervillain attack, but helping out with another group of emergency first-responders: the fire department.

Buffalo, with a population of about 300,000, has over 60,000 fire calls per year... which, even with only a fraction of them being serious, means an interested super can be as busy helping out as they wish to be. Not to mention, rescuing people from burning buildings is one of /the/ prototypical heroic acts, and acting as air-ambulance to fly injured civvies to the hospital only adds icing to the cake.

So, how much 'firefighting' can be added to a superhero's charsheet? I'm planning on fiddling with her signature handheld weapon, turning it from a generic bar of metal thing into a modified fire axe. Her power armor already provides her with nearly everything a fireman wears - armor, life-support... maybe add a few extra points of ED for Nomex-like fire protection, and some of those high-visibility reflective strips. Explicitly add some sort of fire-dampener grenade to her arsenal of chemicals. Bump up Paramedics by a few points, throw in PS: Firefighter. Maybe a group Contact with the local Fire Department, or a positive Reputation of some sort? What else would fit in well?

Re: Blowing up your own power armor

(Okay, so there's /one/ definite thing I could do to make the big-badda-boom bigger, but somehow I don't think my GM will look appreciatively on a MegaScaled boom... )

Re: Blowing up your own power armor

Deh. Now I know how everyone feels when I do this.

 

Lockout (-1/2). p.301 5ER. A power with this limitation cannot be used in conjunction with any other powers, simply put. It's commonly used for Multipowers to represent an "all-or-nothing" design, or an SFX that prohibits other powers from behind used.

 

I don't know that it's the most effective thing to use here. I guess it depends If this were me? I wouldn't allow it since the logical question is "How do you get the power armor home again?" Is this a skin suit with guns that you can move under your own power? Or is this an augmented power armor that cannot move without mechanical assistance?

Ah, thank you kindly, I now have a value and description for Lockout to chat with my GM about.

This particular "power armor" has two main components; the multipower, which includes just about all the uses I could come up with for a particular superscience gizmo, in the form of some gadgets strapped on at various places; and the armored costume, your basic 8 PD/ED, Flash Defense, Life Support, Radio Headset sort of stuff, which don't depend on the END Reserve backpack battery. In the terms you presented, "a skin suit with guns".

If I were to allow it, then I would design it something closer to this:

 

Power Armor, et al. (+END Reserve as Battery Pack)

MP Slots (All Cost End)

 

31 Big Badda-Boom: Killing Attack - Ranged 8d6, Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect does a predefined amount of damage; Power Armor Non-Functional Without Battery; +0), +1 Increased STUN Multiplier (+1/4), Explosion (+1/2) (210 Active Points); 1 Charge which Never Recovers (Battery Is Destroyed In Process; -4), OAF (Power Armor Battery; -1), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Range Based On Strength (-1/4)

 

No battery? No go. But it'll make a big mess when it lands. One could make an argument for "Limited Recovery" -- I'm never quite sure how that one works, but a missile is considered "one charge that never recovers" in some designs, so I went with that here. If it's used every other game, then... bleh. Knock that down and bump up the cost. Range Based on Str is because it'll only go so far as you throw it. So there's that.

An interesting build, but one that I doubt I'll be able to use, as the GM has set a limit of 60 active points on powers. Plus, I do have a finite point budget, and my first draft, where I threw in everything I could think of at the time, came within 4 points of that budget; I can probably scrape up 5 or 10 points without too much trouble, but more than 25 and I'll have to start rewriting (or removing) significant pieces.

It's almost time for me to head to bed. Unless someone posts some suggestions before I awake - and I hope someone does - I think I'll simply propose the Multipower version to my GM. Since the END Reserve is 40 active points, that's what I'll aim for... to be honest, this isn't /that/ big a big-badda-boom, but for 40 AP, there doesn't seem much else I can do to make it bigger. (Feel free to offer suggestions for that, too. )

[40] Multipower, 60 point reserve, OIF (-1/2)

Backpack battery:

[27] Multipower, 40 point reserve, OIF (-1/2)

[3u] END Reserve (200 END, 20 REC) (active 40); OIF (-1/2) (real 27)

[1u] Big badda-boom self-destruct: 1-1/2d6 RKA (base 25), Explosion (+1/2) (active 38), Charges: 1 charge (replaceable at lab/base) (-2), Lockout (-1/2), OIF (-1/2) (real 10)

Re: Blowing up your own power armor

Try looking under Limitations or Power Modifiers.

Just did, and can't find it there, or under Power Advantages, either, or in the index. I might have missed it, but I just can't seem to find it. Is it from some other book, or the Revised edition?

Re: Blowing up your own power armor

My first thought was to create an additional Multipower' date=' with one slot being the END Reserve, and the other being the exploding power-pack effect. Give the exploding power-pack 1 Charge and Lockout.[/quote']

Skimming my book, I can't seem to figure out where 'Lockout' is mentioned; could you help me by mentioning which header it's under (or page reference for Fifth Unrevised)?

Most power armor I've seen uses up lots of power; so much so that, if its batteries were made of non-superscience material, it wouldn't be able to contain it all without exploding. So, naturally, I mentioned in my newest power-armor PC that that's happened to her now and then in the past, and she's reinforced the armor around the power cells to prevent that.

But, tonight, I started wondering if it might be possible for her to /use/ that, in a last-ditch, all-the-marbles, one-shot blast. (Well, one-shot until she goes back to her lab for her backup battery, anyway.)

The reason I'm posting here, is that I'm not entirely sure how to /build/ the thing, and am hoping for advice.

Her current power armor:

[40] Multipower, 60 point reserve, OIF (-1/2)

Backpack battery:

[27] END Reserve (200 END, 20 REC) (active 40); OIF (-1/2)

I'm thinking of starting off the Self-Destruct with something like:

[?] Big ba-da-boom (base 23 to 34), Explosion (+1/2), Time Delay (+1/4) (active 40 to 60), Charges: 1 charge (-2), OIF (-1/2) (real 11 to 17)

... but I'm undecided whether to try adding Side Effects: "Power Armor's multipower cannot be used until battery replaced at lab"... or, possibly putting the self-destruct in a new multipower alongside the END Reserve, with the reasoning that either the END Reserve can be used, or the self-destruct, but not both; and when the self-destruct's one charge is used, the END Reserve can't be used, either, until that charge is replaced. Which will, naturally, depower the power armor, which is precisely the effect I'm going for, but depends heavily on the "GM's Permission" for including a Special Power in a power framework.

What do you think?

Re: Just kanoodling; what would you do with 'Rewind'?

The problem I have with your build is that he actually does travel back in time to do his rewind, right? My game Universe includes Temporal Devices. There are devices that can stop Time Travel in an area (One of the many dampeners built into the Super Teams holding cells). The way you built him, he could still use his power in a field like this.

 

Besides, Extradimensinal Movement would be cheaper that your Clairsentience. I do like your take on it. It's just the mechanics of it and the SFX that I think would work better with a more traditional write-up of a character like this.

Ah, yes, powers interacting with other powers - I'd forgotten about that. I admit it's something of a poser. Do you have any anti-temporal power writeups handy for us to compare Rewind to, and try to figure out how to deal with?

What would I do with him? Well, I already use Captain Chronos in my game. I don't have a problem with a character like this. I would set more tim e for combat if I knew he would be involved. Combat already takes a while. Add in a guy that can rewind the battle several segment (Or even rewind to the beginning!) would really prolong combat.

Given how the PCs themselves wouldn't experience any of the rewinding (unless, perhaps, the GM throws in a 'usable by others simultaneously', which may give some interesting play...), I deliberately tried to write up Rewind to avoid having to re-play, and re-re-re-re-re-play events, merely giving the outwardly-observable effects of multiple rewinds.

Mostly, I'd use him as a good samaritan type. Saving people for deadly accidents before they happen. Some of his saves might not even be readily apparent to those saved. This could lead to some fun roleplay.

I can see how, when Rewind finally decides he's done with a day, he might want to run through it in such a way that benefits, not just himself, but others who might eventually benefit himself.

Re: Just kanoodling; what would you do with 'Rewind'?

Interesting build and concept - his danger sense may have to have the limitation on it of "Not vs. attacks that could one-shot him into unconciousness/death"

 

You may also wish to limit his Luck to "only things he could have predicted/only thing he could have caused to happen", to give him the Groundhog Day effect of setting things up to go just right. He still can't get meteors to fall from the sky, but he sure as heck can prepare for anything else...

Both points are worthwhile; any suggestions on what those Limitations would be worth?

Just for kicks, let's play with one of the classic hard-to-roleplay super-powers: the ability to rewind time. First, how would you build it? Second, what would a reasonably smart person /do/ with such a power? And third, how might a GM use an NPC with such a power in play?

My first thoughts on a build is to look at it from everyone else's perspective - as far as they can tell, this 'Rewind' fellow somehow mysteriously gains knowledge of the future. So Clairsentience/Precognition would seem to be the way to go.

So, after skimming my Big Black Book, here's what I've come up with for the main power, and the various 'stunts' that might be accomplished using it... what do you think? Am I missing any, or have I mis-built anything?

Super Name: Rewind

Super ability: Can 'rewind' himself back through time, to any previous point in the day, and then choose to do something else. He physically re-experiences everything his body went through, though backwards and faster than before; thus, he can't rewind through any point he was asleep or unconscious. He can rewind just a single second, a few minutes, or the whole day... as long as nobody knocks him out. Effectively, from other peoples' perspective, he simply knows what's about to happen.

[3] Acrobatics 13-

[3] Combat Driving 13-

[10] Gambling, all types 13-

[3] Anonymity

[2] FB: International Driver's License, Passport

[3] Absolute Time Sense

Main Power:

[50] Clairsentience, Sight Group, Normal Hearing, Smell/Taste Group, Normal Touch. Precognition: of events which need not occur. (base 60) Invisible Power Effects (all Sense Groups) (+1), 0 END (+1/2) (active 150) Fixed Perception Point: self (-1), Precognition Only (-1) (real 50)

Power Stunts:

[30] DEX 20

[20] INT 20

[90] SPD 12

[] reduced Movement, as he's got fast reactions, not super-legs.

[20] Autofire skills

[?] Cramming

[6] Combat Luck, "just missed me!"

[10] Defense Maneuver IV

[?] Fast Draw

[?] KS: Events of the rest of the day

[10] Rapid Attack

Rewinding over and over again until he gets it right: [100] +10 Overall Skill Levels

[?] Tactics

Too many ways to get to count: [15] Money: Filthy Rich, [?] Contacts, Favors

[15] Combat Sense, 13-

Danger is sensed by simply suffering the attack, then rewinding to before it: [50] Danger Sense, sense, any danger, any area PER+8 roll

Take hours to figure out the answer, then rewind: [3] Lightning Calculator

[15] Lightning Reflexes, all actions, +10

Read a book, then rewind to before having started: [12] Speed Reading x100,000

[50] Luck, 10d6

One approach Rewind might take, to help ensure personal safety, might be to have a schedule something like as follows:

Monday morning: Wake up. Spend all day in room, with guards outside, reading newspapers, watching news, and otherwise gathering data on the day. To make sure nobody tries to kill him while he's asleep, pull an all-nighter, staying awake until Tuesday morning. Maybe stay awake all day Tuesday, continuing to do the news thing. Rewind to Monday morning. Use previously-gathered news to increase wealth. Use wealth to enjoy self. Not to mention use powers to enjoy self - he can do anything he wants, without consequence, as long as he makes sure to rewind before anyone tries to kill him. (Insert various Psych Limits here, probably some sort of dissociative disorder involving other people not being 'real', not worrying about his actions' consequences as he assumes he can just rewind to fix them.)

Now, to make this character interesting for a plot perspective, he can't do /anything/, and thus the limits of his power would have to be explored. For example, let's say that he does a little too well at a casino one day. Several days later, just before going to sleep, he feels a searing pain as a bullet pierces his heart... fortunately, he's able to rewind to before the shot, and turns to deal with it... only for the /second/ assassin to take advantage of his distraction. So he rewinds further, and avoids that street... only to stumble into one of those killers' other ambushes, or any of the other killers intent upon his death. No matter what he tries, /one/ of them gets him by the end of the day. And he can't rewind past when he wakes up. So he does something he hasn't tried before... and, as soon as he wakes up, tries to get the PCs to protect him.

Or, the PCs may be /on/ the other side, trying to catch him themselves, for Justice, for a Reward, or for some other reason. He's going to be tough prey, but once they put the cuffs on while he's out cold, or toss him in a cell until he wakes up, he's not going to be able to rewind his way out of it.

Or... taking a plot-point from a certain current TV show, perhaps, on Tuesday evening, Rewind is horrified to see the world end. Nukes, bioweapons, alien invasion, gray goo, or whatever apocalypse the GM prefers. So he rewinds as far as he can, to Monday, and tries to save, not just himself, but other people, too... enter the PCs, ala the assassin plot above. Though the GM may find it easier if, after delivering his warning, somebody manages to KO-and-probably-lock-up the rewinder for the duration, leaving the PCs to be oh so PC-like on their own merits.

Whaddaya think?

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See?

Finally got around to reading the sticky thread...

As far as history goes' date=' Windsor is a great location/area for many a type of game. RumRunners, secret tunnels across the border [under the river'], Cheif Tecumseh, Fort Detroit was once owned by Canada, Highest number of bars per square mile, a casino, a port, surrounded by water on three sides, the great lakes, Canadian Club is made there, lots of mafia connections, highest number of assaults per capita, Automotive capitol of Canada, the busiest border crossing in North America, Polaris Recording studio [motown greats would come across to record], first trolley system in Canada...

 

I'm sure there's lots more that can be said of it, but all in all a great city to adventure in.

Most of the above can also be said about the Niagara Peninsula, on the other side of southern Ontario from Windsor. As I've mentioned elsethread, I'm fiddling around with the idea of a cross-border Niagara super-team; the Regional Municipality of Niagara, and Niagara and Erie counties in New York (including Buffalo), have a population of about 1.5 million... but ten times that number (and approaching 20) per year in tourists, which makes them nearly as attractive as a megacity for any villains who like lots of civvies around to play with. Or who are just being tourists or honeymooners themself. And there are the Falls' power generating stations (attacked in one episode of Superfriends and another episode of Transformers) which Nikola Tesla was involved in, and may be super-involved with in the 2003 blackout; there was a reasonable amount of mayhem and battles in the War of 1812 (including Laura Secord and her famous cow), a short-lived independent country during the rebellions of 1838-9, some raids by the Fenians in the 1860's... two casinos in Niagara Falls Ont, a chapter or two of motorcycle gangs. CSICOP is headquartered in Buffalo. There was a tribe of indians, the 'Neutrals', who were exterminated in the Beaver Wars around 1650. (And speaking of beavers: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Moll_-_Inset_Beaver_Map.png .)

A possible team name: Daredevils, after all the folk who go over the Falls in barrels, though with obvious trademark difficulties. Possible local-themed heroes: Buffalo Wing (a flying brick, named after a locally-invented food item); The Barrel; Hydro (locals call their electric bill 'hydro', as in 'hydro-electricity'); Mist Maiden; Mr. Grape (annual parade mascot); Secord's Cow. Nearby Navy Island, currently abandoned, makes a lovely 1.2 square km live-fire training ground.

Other than Niagara... don't forget to show American readers just how colourful are Canadian bills, and how convenient the loonie and twonie coins happen to be.